Does anyone grow mushrooms here...

[Rzashida]

I've grown mushroom during winter and it was super easy when I grew them from a prepackaged bag. I also attempted to grow them in logs with plugs and I was not successful with that technique. It is very rewarding I may try again.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

I am so blessed, just live 20 mins from the Mushroom capital of USA. so they are plentiful and of all kinds and cheap.

http://gizmodo.com/why-a-small-pennsylvania-town-is-the-mushroom-capital-o-1507494984

 

[steve bossie]

I've got 5 4x8 beds of king stropharia and 2 mounds, growing 2 types of oyster mushrooms. last summer i got ALOT of mushrooms! i dried a lot and gave some to friends. they aren't as hard as you think to grow if you let mother nature do it for you. i started that spring w/ one bed of hardwood sawdust 2 yrs ago. i bought a bag of sawdust spawn form mushroom mountain for $25. broke it up in small pieces and mixed into 6in. of sawdust. covered with a 6in. layer of straw. kept that moist till next spring. by then the sawdust was completely colonized and white w/ mycelium. instead of letting them fruit, i dug up the bed and divided it between 4 other beds of sawdust. last june those beds all produced probably 30 lbs. of mushrooms total. i also started oysters at the same time. i bought 2 packages of oyster hardwood plugs. instead of putting them in logs i mixed them into 2 2ft tall sawdust piles under my spruces and covered w/ straw and kept moist. probably got 10lbs out of them. everything is planted under my big norway spruces which give great shade. this spring I'm going to mix in some more sawdust into the beds and piles to reinvigorate them. maybe try a few different varieties. i have a firewood business down the road that i get a unlimited supply of fresh hardwood sawdust for free. a mix of maple, birch and beech which is perfect for these species. if you can plant a garden you can do this!

 

[zigs]

Just cut my first Oyster mushroom from the kit that my Daughter Willow bought me for Christmas, lovely taste

 

[steve bossie]

oysters are my favs! tried to grow shitake on logs but no luck!

 

[zigs]

When I've had a few crops off the kit i'm going to put it in the leafmold bin at the National Trust garden, might get some more off it when it finds the extra nutrient and it'll help rot down the leaves quicker

 

[steve bossie]

they won't eat leaves for some reason. even king stropharia doesn't like leaves. try crumbling your kit into wet hardwood sawdust or wood chips. you can used the fine wood chips used for smoking meats sold in stores if you don't have access to a mill. make a pile under a shady tree and cover w/ straw or shredded newspaper. keep it moist. by summer you should get a lot more mushrooms. some people drill 1in. holes in a 5 gal. bucket and put the sawdust in there. keep it covered w/ a plastic bag in a warm shady place for 5 weeks. mist lightly w/ a water bottle daily. uncover the pail and place it in a shady area. continue to mist lightly till you get shrooms. the pile works better as the rains do the watering for you unless its dry out. when i water my garden, i water my shroom beds and piles. good luck!

 

[zigs]

I got piles of woodchip, I'm a volunteer gardener at the National Trust

Will give that a go

 

[steve bossie]

let me know how it goes.

 

[steve bossie]

Hey this post makes me think to start my own little mushroom project. I love mushrooms so It makes perfect sense for me to start something like this. First I will have to do a little more research on the subject because everything is still so new and overwhelming. I will let everybody know how my project is coming along.

in your area i would try the tropical oysters. they're easy to grow and come in cool colors like yellow and pink . they grow great on grain straw , cardboard, coffee grinds and sawdust! they aren't fussy! see my other posts.